Beornred (

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

: ''Beornrǣd'') (? – 757) was a Mercian

Thane Thane (; previously known as Thana, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city located on the northwestern side of the list of Indian states, state of Maharashtra in India and on ...

who was briefly

King of Mercia The Kingdom of Mercia was a state in the English Midlands from the 6th century to the 10th century. For some two hundred years from the mid-7th century onwards it was the dominant member of the Heptarchy and consequently the most powerful of the ...

in 757. Beornred ascended the throne following the murder of King Æthelbald. However, he was defeated by

Offa Offa ( 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death in 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of ...

and forced to flee the country, and was killed that same year. There is very little information about him, and the mentions of him are commonly brief. According to the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...

'', in 757: "...Æthelbald, king of Mercia, was killed at

Seckington Seckington is a village and civil parish in North Warwickshire, about northeast of Tamworth, Staffordshire, Tamworth. The B5493 road between Tamworth and Appleby Magna runs through the parish, passing about north of the village. Seckington sha ...

, and his body rests at

Repton Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 census was 2,707, increasing to 2 ...

; and he ruled 41 years. And then Beornred succeeded to the kingdom, and held it a little while and unhappily; and that same year Offa put Beornred to flight and succeeded to the kingdom, and held it for 39 years..." According to

Ingulf Ingulf (; died 16 November 1109) was the Benedictine abbot of Crowland from 1087. Life Ingulf was an Englishman who, having travelled to England on diplomatic business as secretary of William, Duke of Normandy, in 1051, was made Abbot of Crowla ...

, an 11th-century Benedictine abbot, Beornred was regarded as a tyrant, while

Roger of Wendover Roger of Wendover (died 6 May 1236), probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was an English chronicler of the 13th century. At an uncertain date he became a monk at St Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell ...

, a thirteenth-century chronicler, states that he was an unjust king and that the people of Mercia rose in rebellion against him. He was possibly involved in his predecessor's death. According to Professor Michelle P. Brown, Beornred has been considered by some historians to have been part of the same dynasty as

Beorhtric of Wessex Beorhtric (meaning "magnificent ruler"; also spelled Brihtric) (died 802) was the List of monarchs of Wessex, King of Wessex from 786 to 802, succeeding Cynewulf of Wessex, Cynewulf. During his rule, however, his wife and father-in-law had most ...

, as well as several other prominent Anglo-Saxon nobles whose names begin with the letter B.

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* Mercian monarchs Burials at St. Wystan's Church, Repton 8th-century English monarchs 769 deaths Year of birth unknown {{UK-royal-stub

See also

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